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| Thought-provoking message from Lahore | | Cousin marriages among Muslims can prove hazardous | | B L KAK
NEW DELHI, OCT. 24: Cousin marriages among Muslims can prove hazardous. This has been pointed out by the Institute of Experimental Medicine in Lahore. The institue is primarily designed to study enzymes, hormones and immunogenetics--all causing cancer, leukaemia and allied disorders and other maladies including breast cancer.
Seven laboratories of genetics, cells and tissue culture, immunology, biochemistry, enzymology, hormones and microbiology have been equipped with the latest sophisticated instruments and gadgets to undertake these studies.
Among the Muslims in several countries, especially in Pakistani society, marriages with cousins and close relatives are preferred. But according to the papers by researchers, cousin marriages increase the chance of getting diseases in three ways--mental, physical and sexual.
Cousin marriages, according to a study conducted not long ago by some Pakistani researchers, are highest in Pakistan as compared to other countries--the ratio being 40 per cent first cousin, 20 per cent second cousin and the rest within the family and the same caste. Pakistani researchers have maintained that cousin marriages "play a vital role in rare genetic diseases including cancer".
With the new diagonistic biochemical techniques adopted by the Institue of Experimental Medicine in Lahore, the research scientists home to make definite predictions of the posibility of cancer.
Unlike many developing countries no exact statistics of the prevalance of cancer is available in Pakistan. However, it is believed that the incidence is alarmingly high in Pakistan as the population is seriously faced with unhealthy environment, smoking, exhaust fumes of vehicles on the road, industrial smoke in cities and frequent use of fertilisers and insecticides in crops and plants.
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